The tragedy of self-indulgent sex

It is 50 years since Paul VI, in Humanae Vitae, predicted four effects of the widespread use of contraception: first, “conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality” would become widespread; second, there would be a loss of respect for women; third, contraception would increasingly be wielded as a political weapon; and finally, that man would come to think he had utter dominion over his own body.

All this has come to pass.

The acceptance of same sex marriage is a capstone legitimization of sex without responsibility; the Weinstein scandal typifies the abusive sexual treatment doled out to women; the rise of demographic politics, typified in President Johnson’s famous remark, “I’m not going to piss away foreign aid in nations where they refuse to deal with their population problems” has expanded into government advocacy of abortion; and euthanasia has become a human right – the cult of the body now embraces the culture of death.

Those who coined the term “sexual revolution” in the 1920s could not have even fantasised about the degree to which our age would not only trivialise sex, but that it would anathematise any suggestion that self-indulgent sexual behaviour could just possibly be bad for us. We legislate laws to facilitate behaviours that, even a decade ago were, by consensus, immoral.

Moral behaviour and belief in God are deeply connected. Although morality is the product of reason it is devilishly difficult to argue the objectivity of moral norms once God is dismissed from man’s vision. Philosopher Hayden Ramsey stated in 2004 that “Every young person in our society is inducted into two ways of thinking – an ethic of autonomy and a relativistic view of morality”, approaches that are completely incompatible with recognition that human beings are created and have objective duties towards God and towards others.

With this thinking we have seen an acceleration in the breakdown of committed relationships and disengagement from religion.

Can such a way of living continue indefinitely? A society where women exist for men’s pleasure, where children are a problem to be avoided, and where sacrifice for others is no longer encouraged, is already disunited and so must disintegrate.